


Absolute

by EssayOfThoughts



Series: MCU Maximoff Oneshots [95]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War speculation, Character Study, Codependency, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2016-08-19
Packaged: 2018-08-09 18:14:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7812121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EssayOfThoughts/pseuds/EssayOfThoughts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pietro protects Wanda. That has always been absolute.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Absolute

Possessiveness was something Pietro learned to quash early on. Oh, it was still there, of course, Wanda was  _ his _ in the same way that he was hers, twins with no one else left in the world.

But he hid it, quashed it, subsumed it, tamed it to his will.

Wanda was a witch. Witches belonged only to themselves.

She would never like his possessiveness.

 

* * *

 

He learns to quash most anything Wanda doesn’t like - not because she asks it of him, but because he  _ chooses _ to. He wants his sister to be safe, to be happy. He cannot always assure this but he  _ can _ make himself into whatever she needs him to be - not possessive nor violent. Her loyal protector-friend and nothing more threatening. Only what she needs.

So he does.

He quashes a lot, gives over control to only her, lets her decide for them both, watches as his absolute trust, absolute faith and certainty makes Wanda choose more carefully, more wisely, more certainly.

Wanda is his law, the be-all and end-all of his existence. He has shaped himself around her, to be what she needs, whatever that may be - brother, protector, knight sworn to her service. Friend, ally, most trusted shield.

He is whatever she needs him to be.

She relies on him, just as much as he does on her, the only difference being in  _ how _ they rely.

She relies on him specifically, for specific things.

At this point, his reliance on her is absolute.

 

* * *

 

Were they ever really two beings? They are twins, yes, two people trapped in two separate bodies, but  _ people- _

They are key to each other, core, essential, the very heart of one another. Wanda has said to him that the idea of him gone is unthinkable, and even before she said that he knew: life without her was unlivable.

 

* * *

 

(Sometimes, echoes of who he was Before ask:  _ Was it always unlivable, or have we made it so? _

(He-That-Is asks back, asks of He-That-Was:  _ Does it matter? We chose this, we alone.) _

 

* * *

 

(Wanda can’t know, Wanda mustn’t know, the extent is for he and he alone to know, the burden for his shoulders and his alone to bear.)

 

* * *

 

(Wanda, Pietro knows, would have him stop.)

 

* * *

 

(Pietro does not think he can.)

 

* * *

 

She is not his only focus. There are many reasons for this: Wanda would hate that, he cannot protect her like that, the very last vestiges of Pietro-that-was still insist that he is  _ allowed  _ more than that.

_ (What matters what we are allowed? _ he asks He-That-Was.  _ We must protect Wanda.) _

 

* * *

 

(That is, he knows, the only counter that He-That-Was will accept.)

 

* * *

 

(Wanda is his sister. He could not protect their parents but he can protect her.)

 

* * *

 

War rises in the streets of Sokovia. It has always been there, even before they were ten, but it grows, now, births itself anew like poisoning oil and gas and tar and  _ blood _ from between the cobbles of the streets.

The earth itself, bleeding for them.

 

* * *

 

Pietro protects Wanda. That has always been absolute.

_ (Not always - it was  _ **_made_ ** _ always, _ whispers He-That-Was.)

Pietro protects Wanda because she is half of him-

(More than half, now. She is  _ everything.) _

-he protects her because he must.

(He no longer knows another way to be, cannot conceive of one. He-That-Was despairs. He-That-Is is joyous and alive, singing with the certainty in/of his sister.)

(It is all mingled into one, in a way that he no longer thinks has to make sense. It  _ is _ and has for years, and  _ that  _ is what is important.)

(He is Wanda's. Her brother, her shield, her own, all she has left.)

(This, this alone, is absolute.)

 

* * *

 

They, they alone, have always been all they have always had to rely on.

 

* * *

 

People come, seeping out of the cobbles of the streets like oil and gas and tar and blood.

(The earth itself, bleeding for them.)

They offer the one thing the twins have not found from relying on each other.

Vengeance.

 

* * *

 

_ You want it, _ Pietro knows,  _ even if you will not say it. _

 

* * *

 

_ Vengeance, _ Wanda thinks.  _ At last. _

She was not  _ allowed _ it, you see. Had not had a chance for it, was not expected to seek it, was not offered something else to channel all her rage into.

Pietro was, in a way. He could not protect their parents and so he protected her, choosing to channel it so absolutely.

Wanda had never been offered that.

Wanda still wanted vengeance.

 

* * *

 

“Come on,” Pietro urges, “This is what you wanted, yes?”

It is. Wanda has not, would not, will never, tell him of her need for vengeance, as absolute as his need for her. 

But this thing, this she needs.

“I want it too,” Pietro offers. “We had no chance before, but we do now.”

 

* * *

 

They go to the castle.

 

* * *

 

Pietro needs it because she does but he does not say that. He agrees because she does, follows where she goes because that is what he has always done, because he cannot conceive of another way of being.

He is Wanda's. That is what he chose to be.

 

* * *

 

He survives because she does. She survives because he has poured his life into her, ever since they were ten.

They are strongest together, intertwined, interlinked, reliant only on each other.

 

* * *

 

These are their powers, when they wake: things which they do not understand, but which somehow make they-together more whole than they have ever been before.

These are Pietro’s powers: speed and the ability to handle it, reflexes that would have kept Wanda from half the scars she has.

Healing, such that can save any life but his.

(He doesn’t care if his life is saved, so long as Wanda’s is. She is absolute, after all, the be-all and end-all of his existence.)

 

* * *

 

These are Wanda’s powers: scarlet of the mind, letting them talk with still more silence, still more safety. Scarlet of the world, allowing her to create chaos, make that which the world’s orders find improbably and make it real.

(It is red, red as the blood between the cobbles of Sokovia’s capital, the very earth bleeding for them.)

(Pietro has never been more certain of his sister, nor she of he.)

 

* * *

 

He strains for it when they come. He is her brother, her knight, her shield and protector, to see her safe  _ is  _ to take vengeance for her, to take vengeance for her  _ is  _ to see her safe, each of their goals intertwined.

“Go,” Wanda says, because she recognises when he will not stop. “Leave me to guard.”

 

* * *

 

His vengeance is small, not even against Wanda's true foe.

Hers... hers is great, a butterfly in China, flapping its wings.

Pietro knows: soon the storm will come.

 

* * *

 

The storm is a man who is not human, a man who would end the world.

Pietro follows Ultron because Wanda does, leaves because she does, because they are only safe if he is stopped.

“I caused this,” Wanda sobs into his shirt and,  _ Maybe, maybe, it  _ **_does not matter._ **

 

* * *

 

It has never mattered to Pietro, in the end.

 

* * *

 

This is what matters to Pietro, a sum total of one: them, whole, and Wanda first and foremost.

This is what matters to Pietro: Wanda, safe and well.

The rest of the world - even he-himself - is secondary.

This is the thing he must never show to Wanda.

 

* * *

 

(Wanda, he knows, would have him stop.)

 

* * *

 

“I won’t leave you here,” he says, but he will, he will if she asks it of him, because he is hers (her brother, her shield, her protector, hers absolutely.)

“Come back,” she offers. “When everyone else is off.”

Pietro knows: he can  get everyone else off

 

* * *

 

These are his focusses, chosen: Wanda, all she wants and all who could hurt her.

These are his focusses, as it all ends: Wanda, yes, but the child and the archer and the bullets in his breast, bringing him to death.

_ I failed you, _ he thinks. 

_ No, _ Wanda sends, even as she screams.  _ Never that. You have  _ **_never_ ** _ failed me. _

 

* * *

 

He has never failed her.

_ (No, _ sends He-That-Was.  _ You failed yourself.) _

_ (But then,  _ He-That-Is thinks,  _ We do not matter next to Wanda.) _

He breathes and breathes and breathes his last.

 

* * *

 

(What awaits him is peace. He thinks: _ I have been a good soul after all.) _

 

* * *

 

He floats though.

(He knows why.)

(Wanda is why. She is half - more than half - of him.)

(He cannot truly die while she lives.)

 

* * *

 

He can watch, sometimes, when her scarlet reaches, screaming out for him.

(Often, too often, this is due to nightmares.)

(If he could he would protect her from them, but he cannot.)

(He cannot, so he is there afterwards.)

Wanda is his sister, his duty, that which he must shield. (It matters not if he is dead or alive, this is what he chose.)

She is his focus, but not his only one.

 

* * *

 

Possessiveness he had learned to quash, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

Wanda is  _ his _ twin, half of  _ him, _ and he must protect her.

He cannot protect her from her own gentle heart, her own out-reaching mind.

He would, if he could. Protect her from Crossbones, from Stark, from the Accords and Ross, and from Vision, young and naïve as they once were, whom she cares for but is wary of.

_ (Yes, _ Pietro thinks.  _ We cannot trust anyone but each other. They must prove themselves as we did to each other.) _

 

* * *

 

Wanda trusts, Wanda falls, Wanda is failed, not just by he, but by the world.

And Pietro cannot help her.

 

* * *

 

Pietro sees Wanda imprisoned and he  _ hates. _ He hates as Wanda did, as Wanda  _ does, _ hates the world and those in it, hates them that have hurt them, hates Stark.

Hate is easy, for Wanda’s sake. This is, after all, what he chose to be.

 

* * *

 

Wanda safe, Wanda free: this is what Pietro wants. This is the key, the core, the essence at the very heart of who they are.

(Deep, deep beneath the tree of his mind, He-That-Was says, simply,  _ No.) _

(It used to say more, but over the years and through death He-That-Is has quashed it.)

(He knows who he wishes to be.)

(Wanda’s brother, Wanda’s protector, Wanda’s shield. That which she can always rely on.)

 

* * *

 

“Give me the mind stone ,” says Thanos. “And I will give you back your brother. ”

Pietro knows: if there is anything his sister will bow to, it is this.

 

* * *

 

The Mind Stone -  _ Vision _ \- for him. 

He who is secondary, Wanda’s protector and brother, not Wanda herself, glorious and bright and guiding.

He knows, too, why Thanos offered this. Wanda would accept, Vision would fall. Wanda would not be an Avenger, he would not be because she was not.

The Avengers weaker two of their most powerful. Thanos with two more at his side.

“I know,” Wanda says. “But I needed you. After Novi Grad, after the Raft, after-”

Pietro wraps her in his arms. It is not his place to say anything but he does, because it makes her worry less. “We always need each other,” he whispers. “We are all we have ever needed.”

 

* * *

 

They are all they have ever needed.

That does not mean: all they have ever needed is each other and yet… He is threatened. Wanda retaliates. 

He is Wanda’s, as he has ever been.

(He-That-Was is silent.)

He is Wanda’s. That is what he chose. At her side he is certain, he is absolute.

(“You are my sister,” he says. “Of course I love you like life.”)

(Wanda’s head bows to his shoulder, his bows to hers.)

(Trust. Before love and affection, as much as siblinghood. That is who they are.)

 

* * *

 

He is at her side as he ever was. He has no questions or queries, he has no doubts at all.

His faith is, and has always been, absolute.

 

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> Pietro's head is, in my opinion and interpretation, _not a healthy space at all._ I've already explored this somewhat in [No. Halt. Reset.](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7223491)
> 
> Comments are, as ever, very much appreciated!


End file.
